"Now let's see, Junior. Today is Class Day. What's going to happen there?"
"Oh, not much, mother, just some speeches and awards."
"Well, who's speaking, so I'll be prepared?"
"Woody Allen."
"Who?"
"Woody Allen. You know, the guy who made the movie where the gigantic breast chases him and his girlfriend around outside the mansion of a sex-crazed doctor."
It just doesn't mesh. What is perhaps more astonishing than the results of the Class Day poll, however, is that the 49 members of the Class Committee, and the Class Day subcommittee, could come up with a ballot that included 16 entertainers--from Peter Bogdonovich and Katherine Hepburn to George Harrison and Garo Yepremian--in a field of 34 persons.
One reason for the tenor of the list, Dake says, is that the Class Day subcommittee thought it should try to balance the as yet undetermined political figure being sought by the Associated Harvard Alumni for its afternoon ceremony.
The AHA apparently decided that it wanted the spotlight for a change this year, and so bumped the Class Day ceremony to the morning from its traditional afternoon time slot. Moreover, the AHA is pursuing the biggest name possible, with funds and active recruiting, in order to draw attention to its Commencement activities.
Still, there were a few serious candidates on the seniors' list (Leonard Bernstein, Julian Bond, Shirley Chisholm, Erik Erikson, Francis Fitzgerald, Margaret Mead). But the Class of 1973, like gleeful high school seniors, went for the funny men and the celebrities; and the makeup of the ballot invited just such a result.
Obvious choices, notably Sen. George McGovern, were passed over--people who could deliver an address worth the time spent listening. There are many: Elma Lewis, the founder of the Boston Afro-American Cultural Center who received an honorary degree from Harvard last year; Saul Bellow, another honorary recipient in 1972; J. Anthony Lewis '48, the Times columnist who is returning for his 25th Reunion this year.
Others would be people like W.H. Auden, William O. Douglas, Father Theodore Hesburgh, Earl Warren, Lady Bird Johnson, one of the Berrigan brothers, Ramsey Clark, Sissy Farenthold or Joseph Biden, the youngest man ever elected to the U.S. Senate.
So, if Woody Allen does say "no" to the Class of 1973, perhaps the Class Committee can start from scratch. It can run another referendum with a new slate of names, or (experience tells) it can go out on its own and enlist a speaker who will address the important issues of the day as the Senior Class heads for the world outside.